


"Treatment"

by Aliawrites



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-03-01 14:04:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2775725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aliawrites/pseuds/Aliawrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry didn't watch TV but he'd finally stopped fighting about having one and just read quietly when Abe occasionally wanted to watch it. Some phrases he couldn't help hearing though. Some things he could never forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Treatment"

It would come as a surprise to no one who had ever met Henry Morgan, Abe thought, that the man did not watch TV. Abe had only seen televisions at his friends houses growing up, and though he still wasn't a heavy watcher of TV, when he'd been living alone he had gotten into the habit of watching the news and the odd show.

When Henry'd moved in, he'd disdained the presence of the TV, but they'd eventually come to some compromises. No Microwave, no Jazz after 11PM, no Opera before 8AM to name a few - and Abe kept his TV, Henry his piano.

This evening, they'd had dinner and after cleaning up together, they were co-habiting the living room, Abe watching the news while Henry quietly read a book. 

There was nothing good in the news tonight, as was becoming the norm unfortunately. Abe was starting to feel like the crotchety old man Henry teased him about becoming. The news anymore was all sensational and fearmongering as far as he could tell, and he was reaching for the remote to change the channel when something made him turn instead to look at Henry who was sat in a chair beside the couch Abe was sitting on. He wasn't sure what made him look to Henry, but there was definitely something - a change in the atmosphere in the room.

What he saw scared him to his core. There was no colour in his father's face and he was gripping the book he was no longer looking at so hard his knuckles were white. The look in Henry's eyes could only be described as horror.

"Henry?' Abe asked, alarmed. "Henry, what's wrong? Henry!' he called louder when the other man didn't respond right away.

"What? Sorry," Henry replied, lowering the book and not quite hiding the slight shaking of his hands. "What did you say?"

"I said what's wrong? You were a hundred miles away - or was it years? You looked..." He couldn't quite bring himself to say his father had looked scared. "Upset."

'No, no, I'm fine. It's just, could we turn this.. No, tell you what, you go ahead. I'm sorry, I'm a bit tired and I'm just going to head to bed."

"No, Henry - something's wrong. Please, you promised not to shut me out," Abe urged, reminding Henry of the too often forgotten promise made to his adult son.

Henry took a deep breath, determinedly not looking toward the TV and trying not to hear what was being talked about. He had promised not to shut Abe out, or to hide things from his son years ago now as part of their current living arrangement. But this... this wasn't something he wanted to even think about, much less have to admit to his son.

"I..." he tried to lie and say it was nothing, but if he couldn't keep his word to his own son... "I, alright, but could you please turn that off. Please." He wasn't proud of the desperation he heard in his voice, but he wasn't sure how much he could keep his emotions in check if that man kept saying the stuff of his worst nightmares was a defensible practice.

"Of course," Abe replied, moving quickly to turn the set off and turn himself to fully face the other man. Over the years, Henry had shared many things from his long history, but Abe knew he didn't know everything that his father had experienced in his 235 years. He was afraid he knew what Henry was about to say based on his reaction to what was just on the news, but he found himself praying he was wrong.

"Things sneak up on me sometimes and I'm surprised by how they affect me," Henry admitted after a moment.

Abe said nothing, trying to radiate non-judgemental support so as not to disuade his father from speaking as soon as he was ready, but as the moments ticked by he couldn't stand it and spoke.

"Was it something to do with that report on the CIA...?" he prompted.

"I've told you how my first wife, Nora, had me committed to a lunatic assylum when I tried to tell her of my condition," Henry said at last. Abe nodded, as afraid to interrupt as he was to hear where this would go.

"Treatment for the mentally ill - or mad, insane, lunatics in 1815 wasn't... what it is now," Henry went on. "They called it 'hydro-therapy' then. These people," he said, motioning toward the now dark TV. "Call it waterboarding. They also call it harmless," he added with a grim frown. "It's not."

"I'm sorry," Abe said, horrified and vowing to himself to never turn on the news with Henry home ever again.

"No reason to be," Henry said with a sad smile. "It was a long time ago - a hundred and thirty years before you were born in fact. Like I said, it's stupid how things like that can sneak up on me sometimes."

"What's stupid, Henry," Abe said, slightly annoyed. "Is thinking you shouldn't be affected by things. You may be immortal, but you're still human I think."

"Yes," Henry said with a fatherly smile, humouring his son's kindness toward his wallowing in the past.

"A wise man once told me that it's not a weakness for a man to feel and express emotions - a man is weakened when he bottles his emotions away and tries to pretend he's something other than a human being like everyone else."

Henry had told a teenaged Abraham that very thing when he'd been lashing out instead of admitting he was sad about the loss of his mother.

"Hmmm, he does sound like a wise man," Henry said after a moment. "You should do as he says more often." A small smile slipped onto his face and some of the tension was starting to leave his shoulders.

His son wasn't a child any more and he could sympathise and give comfort and he deserved to be treated as the trusted supporter he was. He could handle hearing the details of this part of Henry's past and how that was making him feel as he listened to leaders and former leaders of their chosen home defend the sort of actions that still troubled him 200 years after experiencing them.

"That might finally solve your immortality," Abe said with a snort, trying as he always did to lighten the mood. "You'd die of shock if I started obeying you now."

Henry allowed himself a small chuckle and smile. Glad as he'd been every day since hearing the unexpected sound of a baby's cry in the middle of a war zone and walking past bombed out cars still dripping in blood to find the two people who would give him the will to go on. The man in front of him now giving him an earnest look of love and support still kept him going. 


End file.
